Priya Chandra

Scrolling through Google+ today I noticed the following video in a Chris Brogan post about a man who shares a name with a famous sports star.

It is funny and sad – the tribulations of a man who through no fault of his own disappoints everyone he comes in contact with. But that wasn’t ultimately what stayed with me, rather it was the attitude of the restaurant owner and the waiter and how they missed a classic opportunity to be remarkable.

To get a sense of what I mean, check out the video – it is short, and I’ll wait….

Ok, and we’re back.

Do something unexpected for an ‘ordinary’ customer

The thing that really struck me about the restaurant owner was how he was going to give a famous person (in this case “Michael Jordan” an American basketball star) a (I presume) free bottle of champagne.

But when it turned out ‘to just be’ an ordinary person that bottle was summarily returned to the wine cellar.

But why? Why is a famous person (and in this context I’m going to say ‘famous = new customer’) more deserving of your attention than an ordinary person (current customer)?

They’re the ones that get all the perks generally – for them, a free bottle of champagne is nothing special and it certainly isn’t something to share with their social networks.

BUT a free bottle of champagne for someone who is just ‘ordinary’? Don’t you think they’d rave about that restaurant to anyone they could? So why on earth did they return the bottle to the cellar?

Because, in the immortal words of How I Met Your Mother’s Barney Stinson “New is Always Better” to some people.

New is not always better

The cost of getting a new customer is always greater than the cost of keeping a current customer and the cost of getting a new customer cold (i.e from a search query, cold-calling, an ad in traditional media or Google Adwords) is extremely high.

However, if you’re remarkable to a current customer you’re not only keeping them happy but increasing the possibility that they will talk about you in a positive way with their social networks.

Now you’re getting new customers that have already been warmed up so to speak – they’re much more likely to have a favourable impression of you and your business before they even do business with you. Nice right?

Obviously you don’t have to give them a free bottle of champagne

But you do need to give your customers something to rave about. For example:

• provide excellent customer service – in fact, sadly our expectations as a buying public are so low that even consistently average customer service would probably be perceived as excellent.
• go the extra mile – maybe throw in a free hour of consulting to ensure that their problems are really solved.
• send people who refer you to new customers a gift – nothing big, a couple of Gold Class tickets is fine really (actually in Australia that probably does count as big thanks to the cost of movie tickets here).
• offer bonuses for current customers – this is like a cafe’s loyalty card. Give your most loyal customers a free gift every so often to thank them for their service and loyalty.

There’s obviously a whole lot more you could come up with yourself in this area.

What could you do in your business that would cause a current customer to think – wow, those guys are remarkable! - and share your name with their friends?

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